Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference

The Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference is reaching out to let you know that there are still a few workshop spaces available with our award-winning teaching faculty. This year, Valerie Miner will lead an intimate (8-participant) fiction workshop. Nicky Beer will facilitate an innovative poetry workshop. Kazim Ali will lead a mindful multi-genre prose workshop. Sun Yung Shin will lead a multi-genre speculative nature writing workshop. Returning faculty member Lia Purpura will conduct a creative nonfiction makeshop. We are also honored to host Danez Smith as our Northwoods Visiting Writer, who will give an afternoon craft talk, Q&A, and share their own work during an evening reading. The conference takes place Monday, June 24 to Saturday, June 29 at Bemidji State University.

The conference fee is $900. The fee covers daily workshops, daily craft talks, publishing and editor Q&As, afternoon events, and two conference meals. Workshops are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and all except the fiction workshop are limited to 12 participants per workshop. An auditor option is available for $200 and includes all conference amenities and event programming offered during the week, but excludes participation in a workshop. We’re currently accepting applications. And we’re offering a 10% discount to members of The Loft (use discount code: LITORG24).

Participants are welcome to stay on campus at Bemidji State University—a small university on a big lake in small-town northern Minnesota. Linden Hall boasts air-conditioned suites, with Wi-Fi and high-speed Internet, and is within walking distance of all conference activities for $300 for the week, per person. Recreational activities abound, including boating, biking, hiking, exercising at the campus fitness center, relaxing among the pines in Diamond Point Park, or exploring scenic Lake Bemidji.

MNWC is committed to ensuring a safe environment for all attendees, and will continue to monitor COVID-19 updates.

Please contact Mathew Hawthorne, MNWC Coordinator, at [email protected] with any questions.